Effective student interaction is critical for promoting student engagement and fostering a sense of community in online learning. Despite the extensive recognition of the importance of interaction-oriented practices in college online teaching, there is limited knowledge about how different types of interaction-oriented practices are related to student performance outcomes and, more importantly, racial equity gaps in those outcomes. This study addresses this gap by using a novel dataset that collected online teaching practices through a NSF-funded survey of close to 400 instructors at almost two dozen community colleges in a state. The survey data is further linked to the performance outcomes of nearly 10,000 students taught by these instructors. We begin by describing instructors’ use of practices that theory suggests are promising in promoting interactions and engagement in online classes. We further relate instructor teaching practices with student end-of-semester course performance and subsequent college persistence. The results indicate that greater engagement of interaction-oriented teaching practices relates positively and significantly to student course completion and grades. Additionally, practices aimed to promote instructor-student course management interactions are promising in reducing racial performance gaps. While teaching practices and the online learning landscape may have evolved post-COVID-19, the foundational strategies for effective interaction identified in this study remain relevant. These findings offer evidence-based strategies that can be adapted to current and future online learning environments, helping educators enhance student engagement and success in the post-pandemic era.

This article highlights the foundational challenge of rapid interprofessional student team formation and the potential challenges that groupthink poses for newly-formed teams participating in collaborative problem-based learning activities. This article describes a mixed-methods study that addresses groupthink by introducing a generative artificial intelligence-based agent (genAI agent) into the small group processes of student teams engaging in a session of a well-established virtual interprofessional education methodology. The integration of this novel genAI tool into each student team was an intentional pedagogical technique, introduced in response to the challenges that newly-formed student teams may encounter as they rapidly come together and potentially contend with the many factors that may contribute to a state of groupthink. This study’s findings regarding: student perceptions of the GenAI agent; its integration into their team processes; its influence on team discussion and outcomes; the influence of faculty facilitators on acceptance of the genAI agent; and findings regarding the introduction of controversial viewpoints by a genAI agent as a mechanism to counter groupthink, are reported and discussed alongside recommendations for further research and utilization of this instructional approach. Keywords: Generative AI Agents, Artificial Intelligence in Education, Team Based Learning, Problem Based Learning, Groupthink, Controversy, Learner Collaboration, Team Dynamics, Psychological Safety, Interprofessional Education, Health Professions Education

Scholars have often proposed the use of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) as a way to improve the experience of Black learners in mathematics classrooms. Prior research shows Black learners show improvement in comprehension, engagement, motivation, and confidence as a result of CRP’s use. However, there is limited research on whether Black learners respond similarly when exposed to CRP in undergraduate remote learning environments. This qualitative teacher-researcher case study examines learners’ experiences in a remote undergraduate algebra course to explore CRP’s pedagogical design in a remote mathematics environment and its impact on three Black learners’ engagement, motivation, and confidence. Results show that as a result of the use of culturally relevant problems as part of the online course, specifically in weekly discussion boards and written reflection assignments, participants showed improved engagement, confidence, and motivation towards learning mathematics.

Fully online courses and degree programs are popular with students. These courses should provide the rigor and value of traditional learning in a face-to-face classroom to ensure mastery of concepts and learning objectives. This research expands previous work to investigate the effectiveness of online laboratory exercises in enhancing student understanding of core concepts taught in fully online introductory astronomy, physics, and biology courses. Identical classes, with or without an online laboratory, were compared to determine gains in content mastery. A Likert-style survey was also used to quantify student perception of the laboratory component for those courses. Results indicated astronomy and physics students in online laboratory courses showed significant gains in mastery of learning outcomes whereas biology students in online courses showed more mixed results. Further, surveys indicated student perceptions strongly support the belief that the labs helped to learn the course material and labs were an effective “hands-on” experience, directly contributing to student satisfaction in all disciplines studied.

Previous research has shown that programmatic factors influence doctoral student outcomes, including timelines. However, completely online doctoral students have unique characteristics and needs and are underrepresented in the research literature; therefore, research exploring programmatic factors as related to learning outcomes in this population is warranted. This study investigated differences in time to completion among 3 cohorts of non-clinical psychology doctoral students: those who experienced a traditional dissertation model, those who experienced a sequentially structured dissertation model, and a transition cohort. We used institutional data from a non-profit completely online primarily doctoral-granting university for 430 doctoral students who completed their psychology PhD from 2013-2020. Analyses indicated time to completion was significantly lower for the sequentially structured cohort compared to the traditional (p < .001, d = .70) and transition cohorts (p < .01, d = .43). There was no statistically significant difference between the traditional and transition cohorts (p = .09). Overall, these results suggest mechanisms of the sequentially structured model support conscientious student progress with structured proximal goals and mentor feedback loops to guide progress and support timely completion.

The idea of social capital as the value obtainable from an individual’s social relationships has been used to study many organizational and social settings, but rarely virtual environments. We use data from an online higher education institution to examine how an individual’s social capital derived from her position in the social structure influences her performance levels. We confirm that social capital has a significant effect on achievement. Firstly, we find that centrality and cohesion in social networks have a positive effect. Secondly, we show how the network structure counts and how diversity in relationships is important. Having access to heterogeneous peers also increases the performance level in learning processes. These findings suggest that the proven importance of social capital in face-to-face situations might be translated into virtual environments and support the need to build or enhance ICT-mediated students' social networks in distance learning.

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Covid-19 and the policy shift to lockdowns had a considerable impact on global higher education. Campuses transitioned to virtual, online teaching leveraging a host of learning technologies to deliver educational content. While many universities had existing infrastructure to shift to online content delivery, interactive, collaborative learning within this virtual teaching space was not as simple. Students were unable to travel for valuable exchange and field-based learning activities, including applied research and internship opportunities. This article considers one attempt during Covid-19 lockdowns in Aotearoa New Zealand and Ontario, Canada to co-create and deliver an innovative, cross-national virtual learning environment. The project that emerged from theseunprecedented circumstances asked: how can students in different countries, on opposite sides of the globe, engage in virtual collaborations to develop practical insights into global, locally relevant public policy problems? The model leveraged existing academic staff, university resources and existing relationships between researchers and community organizations to provide a successful model.

This autoethnographic study examines the influence of my positionality in designing a hopeful, racially just online learning. Hope stems from an innate belief in the possibilities for a brighter future. Therefore, hope involves embracing strengths. In this paper, I explore the influence of my positionality on my online course design through autoethnography. I analyze how feminism has impacted my online course design and strategies for cultivating teaching, social, and cognitive presence for racially just online learning. Racially just online learning aims for representational justice, recognitive justice, and representational justice to restore to people their history, culture, language, and dignity. I describe how my online course design is rooted in human-centered learning design with empathy where learners’ cultural capital, lived experiences, and funds of knowledge are valued and honored. In this trusting, caring online community, open educational practices and appreciative inquiry empower learners with learner agency for a hopeful and racially just future.